The fear became well-founded and real, but
the pressure exerted by associations in defense of heritage and cultural institutions
has managed to prevent the town of Ferrol from A Coruña from experiencing a controversy like the one caused by Borja's Eccehomo, whose attempt failed restoration went around the world.
On this occasion,
danger surrounded the small carving of the Virgin of Chamorro or Nordés, in the Chamorro hermitage
, which was about to undergo a restoration process without any type of control or guarantee, avoided in extremis.
This Virgin is the epicenter of a
popular pilgrimage that every Easter Monday becomes massive in Ferrol
and Carlos Henrique Fernandez Coto, president of the Association for the Defense of Galician Cultural Heritage (APATRIGAL), points out that "it is probably the oldest Virgin from Galicia".
This is revealed by the data handled by this group, whose participation was crucial to avoid the disaster.
The original carving dates from the time of the Foundation of the Cathedral of Santiago and, in recent decades,
has already undergone various uncontrolled restoration processes that have altered its original appearance
, a "very simple, austere and well done" wood carving and carved with a lot of patience and love".
They have evidence of at least three on the original size of the 12th century, in the 60s, in the 90s and the most recent in 2018. Now, not only has it been spared a new facelift, but it is guaranteed that the The next time it is touched, it is with all the controls to try to return it to its original state.
The road has been complicated, but, at the same time, very fast
.
In barely a week, there has been a change from the imminent closure of the church for its restoration to the existence of specific instructions to preserve its essence.
"Finally, it will proceed accordingly: Study and analysis of the piece by experts, restoration proposal by an expert restorer, authorization from the General Directorate of Heritage, and restoration with the recovery of the original appearance, maintaining authenticity. and eliminating the wrong done so far", they explain from APATRIGAL.
It all started with a story in a local newspaper, the Ferrol edition of
La Voz de Galicia
, which published that between January 23 and 31 the chapel would be closed to proceed to clean the carving of the virgin, darkened and deteriorated by smoke. of the candles that are lit in his honor and that a sculptor would take charge of the tasks.
When they read it in this heritage defense association, all the alarms went off and they began to mobilize through social networks.
Image of the Virgin after the restoration of the 60s.
In a matter of hours,
a great controversy was generated in Ferrol and throughout Galicia
.
They put the machinery into operation, both through social networks and by sending alert letters to the General Directorate of Heritage of the Xunta de Galicia and to the Galician Minister of Culture himself, Roman Rodríguez.
Regional associations (Ferrolterra Antiga Cultural Association) and sectoral associations (Association of Conservators and Restaurateurs) and the Ferrol City Council itself made the issue a priority and the Galician Government acted.
The Department of Culture of the Xunta de Galicia recalls that both
the image of the Virgin of Chamorro and the church in which it is located are part of Galicia's cultural heritage
and, therefore, it is necessary that the interventions carried out be authorized by the General Directorate of Cultural Heritage.
As soon as they learned of the intentions of the owners to restore it, they let them know and the notice took effect.
Thus, from Culture of the Xunta they indicate to El MUNDO that the property "is not going to act immediately on the image" and, in addition, it is going to study the possibility of hiring the specialized technical advice that is necessary to move forward.
An original polychrome piece
The news has cheered those who mobilized to avoid the disaster.
Carlos Henrique Fernández acknowledges that
the current image is no longer the original and that they also do not know exactly what it was like because the surviving photos are in black and white
, but they suspect that the value of this carving even depends on its possible polychromy.
This group does not see bad faith in the owners of the carving that tried to restore it, but rather a "lack of knowledge" of the necessary procedures for this type of action, for this reason they consider that the alterations carried out up to now did not have bad intentions.
Some of them are easily correctable, such as the clothes or hair added to the Virgin and child, but not so much those that imply having their faces painted
.
The current image, in his opinion,
"looks like a Famosa doll, it's scary",
since this medieval piece was painted without respecting its originality and "the colors it has now come from makeup".
Although "what is already there is distorted with respect to the original", with brilliant paintings compared to the sober and elegant ones of the 12th century, they are confident that they can act now to practically recover their nature.
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